Anthrax case judge orders ex-reporter to reveal sources or pay fines

Toni Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, faces a $500 daily fine beginning at midnight. Next week, the fines will go up to $1,000 per day, then to $5,000 a day the week after.

"I don't have that kind of money," she said Monday.

The judge has prohibited her friends, family and former employers from helping her pay the fines.

But lawyers for Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, the biowarfare expert who came under investigation after the mysterious wave of anthrax attacks in 2001, said Locy can spare herself by telling the full truth.

"We hope it [the judge's order] hastens the day when the media returns to exposing, rather than covering up, wrongdoing on the anthrax investigation," said Patrick P. O'Donnell, whose Washington law firm represents Hatfill in his lawsuit against the Justice Department.

In recent years, judges have taken an increasingly hard line against reporters who refuse to cooperate with prosecutors or plaintiffs who are pursuing a civil suit against the government.

In this case, Hatfill sued the Justice Department for leaking information that damaged his reputation. In August 2002, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft called Hatfill a "person of interest" in the unsolved anthrax case, which sent reporters and camera crews in pursuit of the former government scientist.

Subsequent news stories cited unidentified persons in the FBI or Justice Department who described Hatfill's background -- including, for example, his research on bio-toxins at Ft. Detrick in Maryland.

But Hatfill was never charged in the anthrax case, despite what has been described as the largest investigation in the FBI's history.

When government officials refused to help with his lawsuit, his lawyers turned to the reporters who wrote about the case.

In May and June 2003, Locy wrote two articles about the continuing investigation of Hatfill. She described the reports as routine.

"These were just wrap-up stories. They were not scoops. I was skeptical of what the government was doing to Hatfill," Locy said. "Hatfill's lawyer told me his client was still under surveillance. And I called some people at the FBI to confirm the details."